Wimbledon’s Ross Hutchins described his first experience playing at the prestigious surroundings of Royal Albert Hall during the Statoil Masters ATP Champions Tour Tennis event last week as a "very special".

The 29-year-old former British Davis Cup player and recently retired professional, teamed up with fellow SW19 resident and 2007 Wimbledon mixed doubles champion Jamie Murray, elder brother of two-time grand slam champion Andy.

The pair beat the Spanish-Belgian pairing of Sergi Bruguera and Xavier Malisse in the deciding 10-8 champions tie-break.

However, they lost their next match, a one set encounter (8-6), to former British number one Tim Henman and 2003 US Open winner Andy Roddick, who incidentally lost to Fernando Gonzalez in the singles final on Sunday.

“It was a very very special occasion to play at the Royal Albert Hall,” said Hutchins, whose father Paul, a former Davis Cup captain, also played at the West Kensington venue.

“I have known about the Royal Albert Hall as I live in Wimbledon obviously.

“I know about the history, the values, the prestige, the pure class of the venue and I’ve been here probably when I was 12-years-old.

“I know how well this venue is known in London. We are very lucky to have so many great events here.

“I know being involved with the ATP right now and this is an ATP Champions Tour event, I know how prestige this event is on the ATP Champions Tour so I’ve really, really enjoyed it.”

Before Hutchins hanged up his racquet on the main tour for good, he reached the BMW Open doubles final with regular partner Colin Fleming in Munich in April.

He reached the semi-finals of US Open mixed doubles event with Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan in September before announcing his retirement.

“When I finished it felt that I was quite proud of going back to the game and what I’ve achieved in my career,” he continued.

Hutchins, a former pupil at King's College School in Wimbledon, and an avid Fulham fan, summarised his 2014 season: “The season was OK but it wasn’t one of our best seasons.

“We had our best season in 2012 before the illness came. We were winning lots of matches and were ranked fourth to fifth in the world.

“It was nice to be in the Munich final but we lost to John Peers and Murray who played fantastically. They beat us fair and square and were better than us.

“It was great to be back in the final but unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough opportunities across the match.”